Graphics card and power supply

[chaosteror]

I am planing to get the Gigabyte Geforce Gtx570 Oc.The thing is that my power supply is only 500watts.I have been told that I must buy a power supply of 600 watts and higher..Which one should I get??I want it to be as cheap as it can..(sorry for my bad english I am from Greece)

[ShyguyXPC]

Whats the brand and model of your 500W PSU, whats it have for its Amp Rating for +12V rail, should be info on a sticker or label on the PSU.

[chaosteror]

Whats the brand and model of your 500W PSU, whats it have for its Amp Rating for +12V rail, should be info on a sticker or label on the PSU.

Xpower 500w - Model-No: XPR500
Passive PFC-ATX 12V 2.3/EPS 12V 2.92

[stroyal]

It looks like 20amps combined with 2-12v rails.

The only place I can find it is in this forum, in the first posters sig.
It is not real clear, but it looks like 240w combined 12v.
New CPU And Bios?

I'd say not even close, as the requirements that I find are, 550watt with 38amps on the 12v rail.

If it was a quality brand name power supply, I'd say 500w might be enough, but a 500watt with 20amps on the 12v(if that is what it is), no.

ie.
A Corsair 500watt has 34amps on the 12v
A Corsair 550 has 41amps


The total watts mean nothing, when it is a crap power supply.
Any 550watt brand on this good list will be fine.
Power Supply Info

Here is about the cheapest, at the sight, that most of us buy our parts at, in the States
Newegg.com - XIGMATEK ACXTNRP-PC602 600W ATX12V Ver.2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

As always Shyguy, and a couple of others, are the last word, on video cards, here.

[chaosteror]

It looks like 20amps combined with 2-12v rails.

The only place I can find it is in this forum, in the first posters sig.
It is not real clear, but it looks like 240w combined 12v.
New CPU And Bios?

I'd say not even close, as the requirements that I find are, 550watt with 38amps on the 12v rail.

If it was a quality brand name power supply, I'd say 500w might be enough, but a 500watt with 20amps on the 12v(if that is what it is), no.

ie.
A Corsair 500watt has 34amps on the 12v
A Corsair 550 has 41amps


The total watts mean nothing, when it is a crap power supply.
Any 550watt brand on this good list will be fine.
Power Supply Info

Here is about the cheapest, at the sight, that most of us but our parts, in the States
Newegg.com - XIGMATEK ACXTNRP-PC602 600W ATX12V Ver.2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

As always Shyguy, and a couple of others, are the last word, on video cards, here.

what about Corsair Gaming Series GS800??

[stroyal]

what about Corsair Gaming Series GS800??

Yes, absolutely,, that will even run 2 or them, in SLI.

If you are not going to run 2, you can save a little, by going with a Corsair 550w.

[ShyguyXPC]

Stroyal's starting to get the hang of this it looks like

Not much for me to add, but yeah, the specs for your current PSU are way lower than they should be for a 500-ish Watt Unit, for the +12V power.

it should be a good 350-400W capable at least.

the GTX 570 only uses about 220W of actual +12V power, but you also have to factor in power for the rest of the system, depending on what those specs are, as was said a good 500W or so would be needed most likely for your system.

Something with a good 400W of +12V power to be used (few components on Motherboards, and add in cards use the 3.3 and 5V rails anymore, so more and more PSU are focusing on larger wattage rating +12V Rails)

For example the Corsair CX600 V2 (version 2) 600W PSU, can put out 40A on +12V

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Thats a good solid 480W of power on the +12V alone.

Corsair is a good brand, but so are many others, including Antec.

This Neo ECO series 520W unit, costs a bit less in the states here than the Corsair Above, but also has the same 40A on +12V as well:

Newegg.com - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

(also have this PSU myself, as a backup for either one of my 2 Rigs, my main rig runs a GTX 470 Card, along with a GTX 285. Full system specs are in my sig below my first post above. And the PSU would be plenty to run that entire system, with exception of maybe needing to remove the GTX 285)

GTX 470 uses about 5W less of power than the GTX 570, GTX 285 uses about 183-185W, so between those 2 cards alone, my rig is consuming 400W for the video cards alone, removing the 285 and I could easily run my entire rig on the 520W Antec unit.



This High Current Gamer series, has pretty much identical specs to the Neo Eco Above, either is about same price: Newegg.com - Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-520 520W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply



this Earth watts series 650W is a beast, it can get its entire 650W Rating on the +12V alone, so thats just over 54A of power.

Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Price isn't bad (at least here in states, not sure about over in Greece)


Whats the rest of the specs of your System (Exact Specs, CPU, RAM, How many Hard drives, Optical Drives, any other expansion cards? etc)

[chaosteror]

Stroyal's starting to get the hang of this it looks like

Not much for me to add, but yeah, the specs for your current PSU are way lower than they should be for a 500-ish Watt Unit, for the +12V power.

it should be a good 350-400W capable at least.

the GTX 570 only uses about 220W of actual +12V power, but you also have to factor in power for the rest of the system, depending on what those specs are, as was said a good 500W or so would be needed most likely for your system.

Something with a good 400W of +12V power to be used (few components on Motherboards, and add in cards use the 3.3 and 5V rails anymore, so more and more PSU are focusing on larger wattage rating +12V Rails)

For example the Corsair CX600 V2 (version 2) 600W PSU, can put out 40A on +12V

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Thats a good solid 480W of power on the +12V alone.

Corsair is a good brand, but so are many others, including Antec.

This Neo ECO series 520W unit, costs a bit less in the states here than the Corsair Above, but also has the same 40A on +12V as well:

Newegg.com - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

(also have this PSU myself, as a backup for either one of my 2 Rigs, my main rig runs a GTX 470 Card, along with a GTX 285. Full system specs are in my sig below my first post above. And the PSU would be plenty to run that entire system, with exception of maybe needing to remove the GTX 285)

GTX 470 uses about 5W less of power than the GTX 570, GTX 285 uses about 183-185W, so between those 2 cards alone, my rig is consuming 400W for the video cards alone, removing the 285 and I could easily run my entire rig on the 520W Antec unit.



This High Current Gamer series, has pretty much identical specs to the Neo Eco Above, either is about same price: Newegg.com - Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-520 520W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply



this Earth watts series 650W is a beast, it can get its entire 650W Rating on the +12V alone, so thats just over 54A of power.

Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Price isn't bad (at least here in states, not sure about over in Greece)


Whats the rest of the specs of your System (Exact Specs, CPU, RAM, How many Hard drives, Optical Drives, any other expansion cards? etc)

I have: Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.50Ghz
4GB ram
2 hard discs (1TB) and (500MB)
Keybord:Logitech G15
Mouse:Logitech G5
Speakers:Logitech Z5500

By the way I am wondering why are people using 2 graphic cards??Is it better than having a very good one??for example are 2 GTX 570 better than 1 GTX 590??

[ShyguyXPC]

actually in that particular case, running say two GTX 580's IS better than a single GTX 590 (nvidia has the 590 running slower speeds than the 580's).

2x 570's I suspect would be similar or slightly less than a 590, since the 570 has a few less Cores than the 590's GPU's do.

as to why more than 2 cards, there's a whole ton of reasons.

Graphics on one card, PhysX on another for Games. More than 2 or 3 Monitors. Running software that uses GPU's for accelerated Data Processing (Video Transcoding Apps, Folding@Home, etc). Running Crossfire or SLI for improved performance.

SLI or Crossfire for lower to midrange spec cards is really a waste, since you can easily get as good or better performance from a higher spec card.

But once you get in the upper ranges, there's few cards to best them, so adding a 2nd or 3rd, and depending on the resolutions your running for games, you can see an improvement, however in general SLI and Crossfire is still considered a waste of money, or for those with money to burn, Or in cases where to can pick up a 2nd card for a deep discount.





As to your systems specs, the PSU's listed above, or similar ones to them, should handle your entire system with ease.

[chaosteror]

I am planing to get the Gigabyte Geforce Gtx570 Oc.The thing is that my power supply is only 500watts.I have been told that I must buy a power supply of 600 watts and higher..Which one should I get??I want it to be as cheap as it can..(sorry for my bad english I am from Greece)

Shyguy and stroyal thank you for your replies.I will buy a 800watt corsair psu so that there will be no need to replace it again anytime soon

[ShyguyXPC]

700W or 750W would be more than enough as well.

my Corsair 750W model powers my entire rig with some power to spare.

Only thing I think it wouldn't run is maybe 3 of my current cards, or 2 GTX 590's or something along those lines.


but 2 GTX 570's would easily run on a 700-750W Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, Silverstone, Enermax or several other brands.

Only reason to get more is if you planned on running more than 2 cards (or 3 or 4 GPU's), or you had some power consuming Cooling hardware (such as a TEC cooler, phase change, or really high end Water cooling setup).

There'd be no need for 800W in your rig.

Your motherboard has 2 PCI Express x16 slots, the main one is a true x16 2.0 Bandwidth slot, your second slot is 1.0/1.1 spec, and is only x4 bandwidth, putting a 2nd high end card on that for Crossfire or SLI would be severely bottlenecked by that 2nd slot anyways. Only thing you could do really would be to run a 2nd Lower spec'd card on it for Nvidia PhysX (Sub $75 Nvidia card maybe).

so your still pretty much limited to a single High end GPU in your system, and really no reason to grab a 800W unit. Unless you plan on doing a Major system Overhaul to something much newer in a year or so (dual cards on newer CPU/Mobo combo), where the 800W unit might be needed depending on the cards.


but as was mentioned above, even for a single card setup, one of those 600W range units would be more than enough for your rig with the GTX 570.